


Love is All Around

by Impossibly_Izzy



Category: Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)
Genre: ...sort of, Attempt at Humor, Christmas, Fluff, Literally the biggest pile of Christmas fluff, M/M, Plans For The Future, started out as fluff without plot but sort of developed a plot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-19
Updated: 2019-12-19
Packaged: 2021-02-25 23:55:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21864094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Impossibly_Izzy/pseuds/Impossibly_Izzy
Summary: Jake spends Christmas with his in-laws. Much cuteness ensues.
Relationships: Charles Boyle/Jake Peralta
Comments: 7
Kudos: 81
Collections: thespiceboys





	Love is All Around

**Author's Note:**

> Named after the song by Wet Wet Wet. This fic is very silly, but aren't all my fics silly?

Jake always forgot how much better snow was when you got out of the city. Instead of the grey slush of New York, the snow here was thick and perfectly white, sparkling in the weak sunlight. It was almost too perfect: Jake wanted to walk through it just to take it down a peg.

‘This place is beautiful,’ Charles said, which was probably a more normal thing to say. (He could be surprising like that.)

‘I feel like we’re inside of a greetings card right now,’ Jake said, opening the trunk of the car and grabbing his duffle bag.

‘Just wait ‘til you see inside the cabin!’ Charles said. ‘Oh, this is gonna be so good!’ He pulled his own bag out of the car.

‘Totally,’ Jake agreed, locking the car.

He made to turn towards the cabin, but Charles grabbed the lapel of his coat and fixed him with a very serious, eyebrow-centric expression. ‘Thank you for doing this,’ he said.

‘Babe, it’s fine,’ Jake said.

‘I know, I know,’ Charles said. ‘But a lot of people I know _dread_ staying with their in-laws for the holidays. Eleanor didn’t agree to it _once_. And I know you’d rather spend Christmas at work or in a _Die Hard_ coma. So: thank you.’

Jake leant in and kissed him. ‘I get to hang out with you, and that’s what matters.’

‘You’re the best,’ Charles said, and kissed him again.

‘Your face is cold,’ Jake told him.

‘Come on, let’s go inside before we get frostbite.’

‘Yep, good idea.’

The cabin’s driveway was mostly clear, snow piled up at the edges. Jake kicked one of them, just to see the snow spray everywhere. The door opened before they reached it, and Darlene Linetti greeted them.

‘Come in, come in,’ she said.

The cabin _was_ pretty amazing. There was a Christmas tree in the corner, taking up a not-insignificant amount of space and smothered in ornaments and lights and tinsel. Paper chains adorned the walls, and greetings card adorned spare surfaces. There was even a log fire crackling. It was _mad cosy_.

They left their bags by the door and followed Darlene into the kitchen, where Lynn was sitting with Iggy on his lap and Gina was looking at her phone. Iggy started babbling excitedly at the sight of them.

‘Oh, you two are here,’ Gina said, still looking at her phone. ‘I thought maybe you died in a snowstorm.’

‘Hi Jake,’ Lynn said. ‘I love you!’

‘Uh, yep, love ya too.’ Even after a few years of this, Jake never quite knew how to respond to that.

Charles scooped Iggy up. ‘Hey, you,’ he said. ‘Aren’t you getting big? Did you miss me?’

‘No,’ Iggy said.

‘That’s fair,’ he said, and she giggled.

Jake took the seat next to Gina, eying her glass of prosecco. ‘Are you drinking already?’

‘It’s Christmas,’ she said. ‘I’m not gonna be sober until at _least_ the twenty-sixth. Maybe New Year’s.’

Lynn and Darlene started telling Charles all about a restaurant they’d been to that mostly seemed to involved pigs’ feet. Jake was inclined to agree with Gina.

If he was being honest, he _would_ rather have been eating and drinking himself into a _Die Hard_ coma - that was what all of his not-working Christmases had been pre-Charles. But this was the first time since he and Charles had got together that they weren’t working on Christmas day, and he knew how excited his husband was about it.

Maybe he was being selfish, but he wished they could spend it just the two of them. He quite liked Lynn and Darlene, but he wished he could have Charles all to himself rather than dealing with all the Boyle family weirdness. The upshot was that it was just going to be them, rather than all the cousins. And at least Gina was there.

Four hours later, Jake had consumed several drinks and an omelette made out of things that had no business being in an omelette. And he had listened to Charles and Lynn singing a lot of Mariah Carey, which was certainly an experience.

Charles came up behind him and put his hands on Jake’s shoulders. ‘Are you having fun?’

‘Yep,’ Jake said. ‘The omelette was, uh. Interesting.’

‘We always make them on Christmas eve,’ Charles said. ‘It’s traditional _.’_

‘You’re making these up.’

‘All traditions are made up!’

Jake twisted around in his chair. ‘Any others I should know about?’

‘Yes!’ Charles said. ‘We’re going to watch _Love Actually!’_

‘Oh, I’ve seen that,’ Jake said. ‘It’s dumb.’

‘Of course it’s dumb,’ Charles said. ‘But it’s not Christmas unless you watch _Love Actually_.’

‘I know a better Christmas movie,’ Jake said, playfully.

‘We’re not watching _Die Hard_!’ Gina yelled from across the room.

‘How do you know I was gonna suggest _Die Hard_?’ Jake said. ‘Maybe I was gonna say… uh… another one. Another Christmas movie, that I can totally think of right now.’

‘Sure,’ Charles said, and kissed him. ‘You’ll enjoy it. You’ve just got to open yourself up and allow the Christmas spirit into you.

‘God, don’t _say_ that,’ Jake said, laughing. ‘I’m not _boning_ the Christmas spirit.’

Charles ignored him, checking his phone instead. ‘Rosa sent me her annual text!’ He showed Jake the message, which was just two emojis: a water pistol and a peach.

‘Huh?’

‘It’s her way of thanking me for saving her life on Christmas eve six years ago,’ Charles said. ‘It made more sense before they turned the gun into a water pistol.’

‘And it’s been three years since we got stuck in that store and I flamethrowered those mofos,’ Gina said.

‘That was awesome,’ Jake said.

‘She almost got arrested,’ Charles reminded him.

‘Yeah, and it was _awesome_ ,’ Gina said. ‘I was way cooler than you losers.’

‘I was _very_ cool,’ Charles said, indignantly. ‘Don’t you remember me teaching you the difference between a frying pan and a skillet?’

Jake frowned at him. ‘ _That’s_ the part you remember?’

‘No offence, boo, but I don’t remember it _at all_ ,’ Gina said.

‘Well, trust me, it was great,’ Charles said.

‘You also came out of a vent and hit that guy over the head right when he was about to kill me,’ Jake said. ‘You saved my life. Now _that’s_ cool.’

‘I did do that,’ Charles said, and kissed him.

‘God, you two are even grosser at Christmas,’ Gina said.

They watched _Love Actually_ and Jake found that he did enjoy it, but maybe that had more to do with the candy they were eating and Charles beside him than it did the movie.

Their bed had an honest-to-god patchwork quilt. Jake pulled it tighter around him, listening to Charles breathe as he waited for him to wake up.

Charles opened his eyes, saw Jake watching him, and smiled sleepily. ‘Good morning.’

Jake snuggled closer. ‘Merry Christmas.’

‘Merry Christmas,’ Charles said, and kissed him.

After a while, their kisses turned from blurry, tired ones into something more heated. Jake shifted to press himself against Charles, one hand creeping up his back inside his shirt. Charles made a low noise in his throat and dipped his head to kiss Jake’s jaw and his neck. He slid his hand down Jake’s body.

‘Wait,’ Jake said. ‘I have to give you a present first! Before we do anything!’

‘Oh yeah?’

Jake rolled out of bed and rummaged in his duffel bag, coming back with a wrapped package that was only slightly squished. He triumphantly presented it to Charles and slid back under the covers.

‘Is this what I think it is?’ Charles said, raising an eyebrow at him.

‘Open it,’ Jake said.

Charles did, revealing a bottle of super-fancy shampoo. ‘Oh, you know me so well,’ he said, and kissed Jake’s mouth and his jaw and his ear. ‘Thank you, Jakey.’

‘Shower?’ Jake said.

‘ _Yes_.’

‘We should get downstairs soon,’ Charles said, as they were getting dressed. ‘We always eat breakfast together on Christmas.’

‘Of course you do.’

‘Hey, just be glad we’re not at my mom’s or we’d be at church right now.’ Charles pulled on his ugly Christmas sweater, which managed to be even uglier than most Christmas sweaters because it was entirely made of different shades of beige. It was the Charles-est thing Jake had ever seen.

He didn’t have a Christmas sweater, but he did have a red and green plaid shirt.

‘I like this,’ Charles said, straightening Jake’s collar. ‘The Christmas spirit is really penetrating you.’

‘Please just never say penetrate,’ Jake said. ‘Like, in any context.’

Everyone else was already downstairs.

‘Come on, you two,’ Lynn said.

Gina was lying on the couch wearing a G Hive t-shirt. ‘He won’t let us eat anything until we open the stockings,’ she said. ‘And he won’t let us open them until everyone’s here.’

‘Yeah, it’s _traditional_ ,’ Charles said. ‘I remember when we spent all morning waiting for cousin Sarah, and – this is a classic story – it turned out that-’

‘Yeah, cool story,’ Gina said. ‘Can we do the thing now?’

‘Go on,’ Darlene said.

Jake tipped his stocking out onto the floor, and Charles frowned at him. ‘You’re meant to take out one thing at a time.’

‘Oh, sorry.’ Jake looked through his stuff: clementines, candy, cellophane-wrapped gingerbread cookies, a miniature bottle of Baileys, and an inexplicable pair of socks.

‘We always open these first and then eat the cookies and things for breakfast,’ Charles said.

‘Now _that’s_ a tradition I can get behind,’ Jake said.

‘Cookie!’ Iggy said, waving a wrapped gingerbread to show she approved.

‘It’s great having a little on around for Christmas again,’ Lynn said.

‘Look at that,’ Gina said to Iggy. She unwrapped a cookie and broke off a piece for Iggy. ‘Your step-grandad slash great-uncle’s actually got a point for once.’

‘It’s going to be even better once she’s older,’ Darlene said, smiling fondly. ‘When she actually understands what’s going on, and you can start getting excited about Santa and everything.’

For some reason, the thought of it made Jake’s chest ache. Iggy older, leaving cookies out for Santa and waking up early to pull presents out of her stocking. Sledging and building snowmen and baking gingerbread cookies. Eating weird omelettes and watching Christmas movies.

And then Charles came and sat next to him and fed him segments of clementine as Gina complained about them being gross, and Jake left that line of thought alone for a while.

Apparently they weren’t allowed to open any more presents until after lunch, which Lynn and Charles had disappeared to the kitchen to cook. Darlene was reading, Gina was on her laptop doing internet star things, and Jake sat on the floor with Iggy, playing a game where he stacked her wooden blocks and she took great delight in knocking them down.

‘Hey,’ Charles said, appearing in the doorway. ‘How many potatoes does everyone want?’

‘Loads,’ Jake said. Gina gave a thumbs-up.

Iggy threw a block across the room. ‘Aww, I needed that!’ Jake said. ‘Hey, Iggy, please can you go get that for me?’

Iggy got up and toddled across the rug to pick up the block. When Jake glanced up, Charles was giving him a look that was hard to figure out.

‘What?’ Jake said.

Charles smiled. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘You’re just cute.’

They had been lying in bed one night, more than a year ago, when they had had The Conversation. It wasn’t the first time they had talked about having kids, but it was the time that really stuck in Jake’s mind.

‘I do want kids,’ Jake had said. ‘But I also don’t.’ Imagining himself as a father felt like imagining himself going to space: dope, but something he could never _actually_ do. ‘I don’t know. It just makes me feel – ugh!’

‘What’s holding you back?’ Charles said.

‘Are you therapizing me right now?’

‘I’m being a supportive boyfriend right now,’ Charles said. ‘Jakey – I’m not trying to push you into anything. I wouldn’t – I just want to help you.’

‘Okay.’

‘We don’t have to talk about it.’

‘No, you’re right, let’s talk about it. I guess… I’m worried I would suck. Like, what if I don’t know how to be a good dad? What even _is_ a good dad?’

‘I know it’s hard,’ Charles said, stroking Jake’s hair gently. ‘With your parents and everything.

‘Yeah,’ Jake had said, moodily.

‘My parents weren’t great either,’ Charles said. And then, ‘Oh my god, don’t tell them I said that.’

‘Why would I tell them that?’

‘They _are_ great,’ Charles said. ‘I love them a lot. But they let their relationship problems get in the way sometimes. They’d always be using me to try and get back at each other.’

Sometimes Jake forgot that Charles’ parents had got divorced too. He felt kinda bad for how much he talked about his own parents. ‘That sounds like it sucked,’ he said.

‘Sometimes,’ Charles said. ‘But the point is that I know I’m not gonna be like that. When I have kids – if I have kids – I’m only gonna take the good parts of the way my parents were. Like, I never doubted that they loved me.’

‘You’re good at that,’ Jake said. ‘Showing people you love them.’

It was three in the afternoon by the time they sat down for lunch, and then there were party poppers to set off and crackers to pull. Everyone ended up with a paper crown, but only Gina wore hers.

The food was amazing, and surprisingly unweird for something made by Charles and his dad. Asking for loads of potatoes had definitely been the right choice – they were soft in the middle and perfectly crispy on the outside.

‘The key is using goose fat,’ Charles said, happily.

‘No carrot!’ Iggy declared, chucking the offending vegetable over her shoulder.

Gina sighed. ‘At what point does that stop being cute?’

‘It’s always gonna be cute,’ Jake said. ‘Also she’s right. Carrots are garbage.’

‘And yet you ate yours anyway,’ Gina said.

‘I mean I’ve had three years of Charles feeding me intestines and brains and stuff,’ Jake said. ‘I think I can handle a couple of vegetables.’

Iggy kept refusing to eat her carrots until Charles started pulling the airplane trick with them.

‘You don’t have to do that,’ Gina said. The rest of them had finished eating, and Lynn and Darlene and Jake were beginning to clear up.

‘I don’t mind,’ Charles said, spearing another carrot on Iggy’s plastic fork. ‘You should go relax.’

‘Damn,’ Gina said. ‘I never thought I’d say this, but we should hang out more often.’

‘I’m gonna hold you to that!’ Charles called after her as she walked towards the living room.

After that, it was finally time to open the presents. Charles was adamant that everyone sit on the living room floor for this, gathered around drinking yet more prosecco as gifts were passed out from under the tree. Iggy presented one to her grandparents, looking very proud of herself.

Jake and Charles had probably got each other too much stuff, but that was normal for them.

‘I have a couple more things for you,’ Charles said into Jake’s ear. ‘But not in front of my parents.’

Gina gave them a framed photo of herself and Iggy, which was just the right balance of narcissistic and cute. Lynn and Darlene gave Jake a beige sweater. ‘Because you’re part of the Boyle family now,’ Lynn said.

Jake pulled the sweater on over his shirt. ‘I love it,’ he said.

They gave Charles a box full of weird foreign snack foods and a stripy tie that looked exactly like all his other ties, but he looked genuinely pleased to have it. Everyone gave Iggy more new toys than she could possibly need, but she seemed most excited by the stuffed corgi that Jake had picked out and he felt pretty smug about that.

Actually, she was _most_ excited by the fact that it was snowing outside. She pointed at the window with one pudgy finger. ‘Snow!’ When she got no response, she jabbed at the air harder. ‘Snow, mommy! Snow!’

‘Yeah, look at all that snow,’ Gina said. She was still wearing the crown out of her cracker.

Jake watched as Lynn and Charles engaged Iggy in a game with her new toys. ‘Puppy!’ she said, showing off her new corgi to Lynn. ‘I – I – get puppy!’

‘God, I love having people around to entertain her,’ Gina said, slumping down beside Jake.

‘We could hang out with her more,’ Jake said. ‘Like, let you have some alone time. Charles would love it.’

Gina scrutinised him, and apparently decided he was serious. ‘That’s a pretty good idea.’

It _was_ a pretty good idea – Jake was already getting excited thinking about taking Iggy to the park and introducing her to all the Disney movies that Charles loved and Jake pretended not to love. He watched Charles playing with Iggy, and he wanted more of it.

Later, when Jake was pretty sure it was nearly dinner time, Lynn decided it was time for “mincemeat pie”.

‘Don’t worry,’ he said. ‘It’s not actually made of meat.’

‘Except for the lard,’ Charles said. ‘And the suet!’

‘Please don’t explain that,’ Jake said. He took a bite of pie: it was good, and thankfully didn’t taste of anything weird.

Charles and Lynn launched into a convoluted story about the great-aunt who had written the recipe, and Jake tried to follow it but didn’t worry too much, because they were obviously telling the story more for each other than for anyone else.

Gina sighed. ‘They’re unstoppable when they’re together.’

‘They’re sweet,’ Darlene said.

‘Yeah,’ Jake said, thinking _I wish I had that_ , thinking _I wonder what Terry’s doing right now_ , thinking _I should call Holt and tell him merry Christmas_.

Even though his own dad had been shitty and not around for most of Jake’s life, he knew what a good dad looked like. He got up and went back to the bedroom, sprawling across the quilt as he turned on his phone and pulled up his contacts. He listened to the phone ring once and then twice and then –

‘Peralta?’

‘Heyyy, Captain,’ he said. ‘How come you and Kevin don’t have any kids?’

There was a pause. ‘Peralta, did you call me on Christmas Day to enquire about my personal life?’

‘Right,’ Jake said. ‘I mean, merry Christmas?’

‘Merry Christmas,’ Holt said, grudgingly.

‘So, about the kids thing…’

‘There were not so many opportunities open to us when we were your age,’ Holt said, haltingly. ‘And we are both career-oriented. Neither of us regrets it.’

Which was surprisingly forthcoming. Maybe he’d been drinking.

‘Cool,’ Jake said. ‘Coolcoolcool. Well, you would have been a good dad. If you wanted to.’

‘Peralta, what is the purpose of this?’

‘Nothing,’ Jake said. ‘I just wanted to say, you’ve, uh, taught me stuff? And thanks. And do you think I’d be a good dad?’

Holt paused, thoughtfully. ‘I think you would rise to the challenge.’

Jake couldn’t stop himself from grinning. ‘Thank you. I’ll leave you alone now.’

‘Pass on my Christmas greeting to Detective Peralta,’ Holt said.

Jake laughed. ‘That sounds like you want me to tell myself merry Christmas.’

‘You ought to have considered that before you had him take your surname.’

‘Okay,’ Jake said. ‘Well, bye Dad. Captain. Sir.’

‘Goodbye, Jake.’

This was good. Jake still had a lot to think about, but right now things were good.

Charles appeared in the doorway. ‘There you are. Wanna come for a walk?’

‘Yes!’ Jake jumped up. ‘Snow time!’

Iggy kept trying to kick snowdrifts, which made Jake wonder if he acted a little bit too much like a two-year-old.

‘Snow!’ she said, pointing wildly. ‘Mommy! Snow!’ She fell over and let out a surprised shout. ‘Mommy!’

‘Hey, you’re okay,’ Jake said, helping her back to her feet. Charles was giving him that look again, but when Jake caught his eye it turned into a genuine smile. Iggy decided that she was indeed okay, and charged over to her mother and grandparents.

‘Are you having a good time?’ Charles said. He was wearing a red knit scarf and a hat like the ones kids wore in movies set in Victorian England. He looked _adorable_.

‘ _Yes_ ,’ Jake said. ‘Totes. You can stop worrying about that.’

‘I just want you to like my family,’ Charles said. ‘And Christmas. Because I like Christmas and I just - I want you to enjoy it.’

‘I enjoy everything I do with you.’

‘Title of your sex tape?’

‘I guess?’ Jake said. ‘Not your best work, babe.’

They walked in companionable silence. After a while the others fell behind, and they were alone with the snow-laden pine trees and the winter sunlight.

‘I kind of wanna have a baby,’ Jake said. And then, ‘Crap, I didn’t mean to say that out loud.’

‘Jake,’ Charles said, like he didn’t even know how to start responding to that.

‘I mean…’ Jake scrambled to explain himself. ‘I _do_. But I wanted to think about it more before I said anything. I want to, like, articulate stuff. Which now I’m totally not doing at all.’

Charles was looking at their surroundings rather than at Jake, hands buried in his coat pockets and each breath visible in the cold air. ‘Okay. Okay. Whenever you wanna talk about it.’

Jake knew that he meant it, that he would wait to continue this conversation if that was what Jake wanted. But that seemed so unfair, to bring something like this up and then refuse to keep talking about it.

‘I _mean_ ,’ Jake said, hastily trying to pull his thoughts together. ‘I always wanted kids in like, an abstract way. But now I can really see it happening. I don’t know if that means I’m ready, but I think I’m _getting_ ready. Like I’m moving in that direction.’

Charles stopped walking. ‘Really?’

‘ _Really_ ,’ Jake said. ‘Every time I see you with Iggy I’m like, I want that.’

‘Me too!’ Charles said, turning to beam at him. ‘You’re great with her.’

‘I am?’

‘ _Yes_ ,’ Charles said. ‘You’re gonna be a great dad one day.’

Jake couldn’t stop smiling. ‘So are you!’

Charles looked so damn happy. ‘I love you,’ he said.

‘I love you too,’ Jake said. It kept taking him by surprise, how much he adored Charles. The first time they had kissed, the first time he told Charles he loved him, their wedding: he was always amazed by it, by what they had. He grabbed Charles by the ends of his scarf and pulled him into a kiss.

‘I don’t mind waiting,’ Charles said. ‘I’ll wait as long as you need. But oh my god, Jakey, I’m so excited to have kids with you.’

‘Me too,’ Jake curled his fingers into the scratchy-soft wool of Charles’ scarf. ‘Thank you. Thank you. You’re so patient with me.’

Charles stood on tiptoes and pressed his mouth to Jake’s again. Jake grabbed his hat and put it on his own head.

‘ _Hey_ ,’ Charles said, playfully. ‘That’s mine!’

‘You’re so fluffy,’ Jake said, ruffling Charles hair. And then, because he had thought of it and he had to say it, ‘I’m going to be there. When we have kids. I think being there is so important.’

‘I know,’ Charles said. ‘You’re gonna be so much better than your parents.’ And then, much lighter, ‘Give me my hat back.’

‘No!’ Jake said, and Charles made a grab for it, and Jake ducked, and they laughed and fought over it until Jake fell down in the snow and Charles threw himself down next to him. ‘Fine!’ Jake laughed, chucking the hat in Charles’ general direction. ‘ _Fine_!’

And Charles leant over to kiss him again, and everything was freezing and wet and perfect.

‘This has been an _excellent_ Christmas present,’ Charles said, as they walked back to the cabin.

Jake grinned. ‘I guess I really am getting fingered by the Christmas spirit, or whatever.’

Charles took his hand. ‘Gross.’

**Author's Note:**

> Kinda wanna write kidfic now...


End file.
